Turkish Coffee.

Holy shitballs.

I am so caffeinated right now I feel like I'm buzzing likea bee. Flying. Yeeeew.

Had an EPIC day today -- did a power yoga class with Ari at the Zen Den, followed up by lunch and lattes with one of my besties, Miss Jamie D, at Who's on First Cafe, and then got in some Q.T. with ROB Kulisek. Rob and I are obsessed with all-things-coffee, so I was super stoked when he offered to brew me a turkish coffee. I've had java every which way...vietnamese, iced, french press, percolated, espresso, americano, latte, cappucino, this way that way and every other way -- but never turkish. CHEERS.

1. Using on of these cool stove top thing-a-ma-jiggers (technical name: "CEZVE") put in one teaspoon sugar, and fill with cold water.

2. Grind coffee to a powder. *If you are using whole beans: grind, grind, grind. If you are using ground coffee, grind grind grind. You want a powder.

3. Pour powder into little thing-a-ma-jigger. 3 heaping tablespoons for 2 people.

And now I will reference the professionals:

1. Pour in cold water in the coffee pot. You should use one cup of cold water for each cup you are making and then add an extra half cup “for the pot”. Add a teaspoonful of the ground Turkish coffee per cup in the water while the water is cold and stir. The amount of coffee may be varied to taste, but do not forget, there will be a thick layer of coffee grounds left at the bottom of your cup for properly made Turkish coffee. Don’t fill the pot too much. If you need to add sugar this is the time to do it.

2. Heat the pot as slowly as you can. The slower the heat the better it is. Make sure you watch it to prevent overflowing when the coffee boils.

3. When the water boils pour some (not all) of the coffee equally between the cups, filling each cup about a quarter to a third of the way. This will make sure that everybody gets a fair share of the foam forming on top of the pot, without which coffee loses much of its taste. Continue heating until coffee boils again (which will be very short now that it has already boiled). Then distribute the rest of the coffee between the cups.

Since there is no filtering of coffee at any time during this process, you should wait for a few minutes before drinking your delicious Turkish coffee while the coffee grounds settle at the bottom of the cup.

Brewing: Traditionally, and for the best taste, expect the brewing process to take 15-20 minutes. Slowly bring the mixture to a frothing boil on the stovetop. As the froth gets close to the top, just before it boils over, remove the ibrik from the heat, allow the froth to go down (you can do this by stirring), then replace it on the heat. After the third frothing boil, serve the froth in equal portions into each cup, replace it on the heat for a fourth frothing boil, then serve. (Although it has become commonplace to make Turkish coffee with only 3, 2 or just a single frothing boil, it generally tastes best with the traditional 4.)

Decaffeinated Caffeine

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1891

I was sitting with my Dad this morning after a lovely morning yoga session followed by a not-so-fantastic-but-enjoyable-anyways surf session. I was preparing myself a high-test latte, steaming the "Organic Grass Fed Lactose-Free 2% Milk" that we now use. I asked my dad, who was sipping a cup of decaf, how they made regular milk into LACTOSE-FREE milk. He said "I dunno, how do they make CAFFEINATED coffee DECAFFEINATED?" Intrigued and excited for a research mission I began scouring the web. Well here ya have it {thanks to www.my-best-coffee.com}:


In the case of coffee, various methods can be used. The process is usually performed on unroasted (green) beans, and starts with steaming of the beans. They are then rinsed with a solvent that extracts the caffeine while leaving the other essential chemicals in the coffee beans. The process is repeated anywhere from 8 to 12 times until it meets either the international standard of having removed 97% of the caffeine in the beans or the EU standard of having the beans 99.9% caffeine-free by mass. Coffee contains over 400 chemicals important to the taste and aroma of the final drink: it is, therefore, challenging to remove only caffeine while leaving the other chemicals at their original concentrations. For those who are worried about the use of chemicals in coffee, there is little cause for concern. During the roasting process, the chemicals are removed so there is no risk to the person drinking it. Using the natural products and steam is a better method of creating decaf coffee and continues to allow a rich, delicious flavor. There are several different processes used to treat the caffeinated coffee to remove caffeine:

Swiss Water Process

The Swiss Water Process is a method of decaffeinating coffee beans developed by the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company. To decaffeinate the coffee bean by the Swiss Water method, a batch of green (unroasted) beans is soaked in hot water, releasing caffeine. When all the caffeine and coffee solids are released into the water, the beans are discarded. The water then passes through a carbon filter that traps caffeine but lets the coffee solids pass through. The resulting solution, called "green coffee extract (GCE)" by the company, is now available for decaffeinating coffee. New green coffee beans are introduced to the GCE. Since the GCE is coffee solids without caffeine only the caffeine diffuses from the new beans. The GCE passes through proprietary carbon which captures the caffeine. The process repeats, filtering out all the caffeine until the beans are 99.9% caffeine-free. These beans are removed and dried, and thus retain most if not all of their flavor.

Although the process was pioneered in Switzerland in the 1930s, today the world's only Swiss Water Process decaffeination facility is based near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[2]

Direct method

In the direct method, the coffee beans are first steamed for 30 minutes and then repeatedly rinsed with either dichloromethane or ethyl acetate for about 10 hours. The solvent is then drained away and the beans steamed for an additional 10 hours to remove residual solvent. Sometimes coffees that are decaffeinated using ethyl acetate are referred to as naturally processed because ethyl acetate can be derived from various fruits or vegetables; but, because of the impracticality of gathering natural ethyl acetate, the chemical used for decaffeination is synthetic.

Indirect method

In the indirect method, beans are first soaked in hot water for several hours, in essence, making a strong pot of coffee. Then the beans are removed and either dichloromethane or ethyl acetate is used to extract the caffeine from the water. As in other methods, the caffeine can then be separated from the organic solvent by simple evaporation. The same water is recycled through this two-step process with new batches of beans. An equilibrium is reached after several cycles, where the water and the beans have a similar composition except for the caffeine. After this point, the caffeine is the only material removed from the beans, so no coffee strength or other flavorings are lost. Because water is used in the initial phase of this process, sometimes indirect method decaffeination is referred to as "water-processed" even though chemicals are used.

CO₂ process

This process is technically known as supercritical fluid extraction. Pre-steamed beans are soaked in a bath of supercritical carbon dioxide at a pressure of 73 to 300 atmospheres. After a thorough soaking for around ten hours, the pressure is reduced, allowing the CO₂ to evaporate, or the pressurized CO₂ is run through either water or charcoal filters to remove the caffeine. The carbon dioxide is then used on another batch of beans.^[3] This liquid works better than water because it is kept in supercritical state near the transition from liquid to gas, combining favorable diffusivity properties of the gas with increased density of a liquid. This process has the advantage that it avoids the use of potentially harmful solvents.

Triglyceride process

Green coffee beans are soaked in a hot water/coffee solution to draw the caffeine to the surface of the beans. Next, the beans are transferred to another container and immersed in coffee oils that were obtained from spent coffee grounds.

After several hours of high temperatures, the triglycerides in the oils remove the caffeine—but not the flavor elements—from the beans. The beans are separated from the oils and dried. The caffeine is removed from the oils, which are reused to decaffeinate another batch of beans. This is a direct-contact method of decaffeination.

**If you hate the idea of your decaf coffee being so processed but still don't want the jitters that you get from regular coffee - reach for some COFFEA ARABICA. Discovered in Ethiopia in 2004, this coffee bean has about half the caffeine as other coffees.



While doing my research I came across a funny quote that Bob Irwin said about decaf coffee:
"Decaffeinated coffee is like kissing your sister" haha. It's just not right!

Oh, and by the way, they make Lactose Free Milk by adding the lactase enzyme to regular milk.

Lactase breaks down lactose into the two simple sugars--galactose and glucose--which combine to form it. The resulting milk is usually sweeter than regular milk due to the fact that these two sugars are sweeter separately than they are when combined into lactose.

perculatin' my way to perfection.

HOORAY, my NEW Pyrex Percolator!!

SUCCESS!

My New Percolator was a GREAT Success!

This morning I rose from bed like a child on Christmas morning. I ran out to the kitchen, filled my percolator with the called for amount of water/ground coffee. Woohooo, what a sight. I did some research last night, and everyone has a different opinion on how long to let it percolate, how high of a heat, etc. etc., which only makes sense because most people have an individual preference as to how they take their coffee. I opted for starting with a medium heat. As soon as it started to percolate (which by the way is the coolest thing I've witnessed in some time...) I turned the heat down to low, and let it sit and work it's magic for around about 5 minutes - until the coffee was the color and smell that I know and love best. I haven't had a cup of joe this delicious since I was out in Seattle at Julisa & Gordon's house. SO, next time that you are at a yard sale and you see a percolator...pick it up, you won't be disappointed!

Mind you, I had just woken up - 7am. I hadn't even brushed my teeth yet.....

Always looking for a new way to enjoy my favorite beverage, I found this online this morning. This is going to be my next venture.... the Bialetti Mukka Express!

Perculatin' !

Today I was browsing through the new Thrift Store in Somers Point and I came across a glass Pyrex Percolator from many moons ago. It was in tip-top shape and I decided that it had to come home with me. I know, I know. We have a drip, the Bialetti and now TWO french presses {one small glass, and one large stainless steel}...but I've never had percolated coffee. In the shop it was listed for $6.50, but lucky me it was %50 off housewares today...a steal at only $3.25!! Just a side note: there are ELECTRIC and STOVETOP percolator's...I purchased a stovetop. When I arrived home I searched online for some information about my new coffee maker. Turns out they run for $50 or more!! That's quite a savings of 46 bucks and 75 cents!! Anyways, this is some quality information that I found out about Percolator's, and I thought that I would spread the wealth with you, my fellow coffee-fiend's!

~Parts of a Percolator ~

A coffee percolator consists of five parts. There is the percolator coffee pot, into which you put your coffee. There is the stem, a hollow metal tube that fits into the bottom of the pot. In non-electric percolators, it has a flat, round bottom. There is the filter basket, which slides onto the tube and holds the ground coffee. There is the filter basket cover, a round perforated lid that fits on top of the filter basket and makes sure that the water showers the entire basket of coffee evenly. Finally, there is the coffee pot lid, which often has a glass bubble in it.

~ How a Percolator Works ~

The basic principle relies on air bubbles that form in boiling water at the bottom of the pot and their natural rising action. The base of the Pump Stem tube is designed to concentrate this flow of bubbles toward the tube opening. The tube is smaller in diameter than bubbles, so that each snugly-fitting bubble that passes through the tube will carry a bit of water above it along its upward journey.

As these continuous jets of water reach the top of the Pump Stem, they discharge onto the Spreader Cover, which helps disperse the water over the grounds underneath in a more uniform manner, and also keeps grounds from splashing up.

Repeatedly, the infusion will boil upwards and filter through the grounds back down into the pot. Each time the water filters through the grounds, it moves more of the oils into the infusion, making it stronger. Too much time on the stove can make a pot of coffee bitter, and too little time can make it weak.

COFFEE

Main Entry: cof·fee

Pronunciation: \ˈkȯ-fē, ˈkä-\

Function: noun

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Italian & Turkish; Italian caffè, from Turkish kahve, from Arabic qahwa

Date: 1598

1 a: a beverage made by percolation, infusion, or decoction from the roasted and ground seeds of a coffee plant b: any of several Old World tropical plants (genus Coffea and especially C. arabica and C. canephora) of the madder family that are widely cultivated in warm regions for their seeds from which coffee is prepared c: coffee seeds especially roasted and often ground — compare arabica , robusta d: a dehydrated product made from brewed coffee coffee> ; also : a beverage made from this2: a cup of coffee coffees>



I'm sitting here, drinking my morning cup-o-joe knowing that it's going to be a good day, because this is a GREAT cup. Brewed to perfection with just the right amount of sugar and a splash of cream {some coffee-purists may hate me for 'ruining' the coffee with cream and sugar, but what can I say, it's my style}.

Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum - around 6.7 million tons. The coffee tree takes 5 years to reach maturity and you will get about one roasted pound of coffee from that tree -- so we are talking a lot of coffee trees, people!! Brazil has to most of these coffee trees, exporting 30% to 40% of the total world's beans, though Ethiopia is considered coffee's birthplace.

The evolution of the bean to your cup: Coffee berries {yes, they are fleshy berries} are picked, processed {the flesh is removed from around the coffee bean}, then they are dried. Beans don't start out brown, they are usually green. Next, the seeds are roasted at very high temperatures. The roasting causes the sugars in the bean to caramelize which brings out the flavor and that is how we get the rich brown color of the bean.

This is Harry & Bean's coffee roaster

Four single roaster companies buy more than 50% of all of the annual coffee production: Kraft, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee. This is what you are getting at the supermarket. Let me think about how to put this in perspective to you....If you buy a peach at your local farmers market, that was grown in your town, and picked while it was ripe just a day ago - it's going to be FAR more delicious than say a peach that was grown half way around the world, picked before it was ripe so that it could be shipped (it could be traveling for over a week), and then sit in a supermarket for an additional week or two. It's like buying some $3 earrings at Joyce Leslie, that will surely break in the next week, as opposed to buying from a jewelry maker who really takes pride in her craft {ps: check out www.oliadesigns.com its the jewelry designer i worked for in brooklyn, she has some AMAZING pieces and she was recently featured in People StyleWatch}. Bringing it full circle, there is such thing as "gourmet coffee", or even just better coffee than that Folgers you are drinking every morning. Check out Harry & Beans {www.harryandbeanscoffee.com}, a LOCAL roaster, who gets his beans, roasts them, and then they are for sale to you just days later. That is FRESH coffee. Folger's was roasted a month ago, ground (so it's gonna be stale), packaged, shipped, and then sitting in the supermarket for god-kn0ws-how-long.

Let's talk about Fair-Trade, and why you should buy it. Being "Fair Trade" guarantees coffee growers a negotiated pre-harvest price. "A number of studies have shown that fair trade coffee has a positive impact on the communities which grow it. A study in 2002 found that fair trade strengthened producer organizations, improved returns to small producers, and positively affected their quality of life and the health of the organizations that represent. A 2005 study concluded that fair trade has "greatly improved the well-being of small-scale coffee farmers and their families" by providing access to credit and external development funding and greater access to training, giving them the ability to improve the quality of their coffee. The families of fair trade producers were also more stable than those who were not involved in fair trade, and their children had better access to education." Need I say more? Buy Fair Trade. http://harryandbeanscoffee.com/catalog/c8_p1.html <<

Harry and his beans

Harry's Shop: Clean Coffee

Coffee's flavor is affected by so very many things, but now that I've found the bean and the roast that I like, I've been focusing on the brewing process. Percolator, Auto-Drip, French Press, Moka, Espresso,vacuum brewer, cup filter, ‘cowboy coffee’, Turkish coffee (ibrik), etc. My favorite is the Moka coffee maker, the "poor man's espresso" - this is the Bialetti contraption that I was raving about during my time in Seattle. While doing some research, a man summed up my exact feelings about the Moka coffee "...the coffee it produces is heavenly with its thick, aromatic, full-bodied flavor and is similar in these details to espresso, minus the crema."

The Bialetti "moka espresso" Maker

COFFEE TASTING TERMINOLOGY:

• Acidic: Very desirable coffee quality, sharpness detected towards front of mouth; denotes quality and altitudel can be fruity (citrusy, lemony, berry-like. etc) or a pure tongue-tip numbing sensation.
• Bitter: Basic flavor sensation detected at the back of the mouth and soft-palate, often as after-taste, sometimes desirable to a limited degree (as in dark-roast, espresso). Not to be confused with acidity.
• Fruity: Flavor / aroma often found in good arabica coffees, reminiscent of a wide range of fruits: citrus, berries, currants, etc, always accompanied by some degree of acidity; this is usually positive, but can indicate over ripeness or over-fermentation.
• Clean: Pure coffee flavor, no twists or changes in the mouth, no different after-taste (Costa Rica sometimes provides good examples).
• Dry: A certain type of acidity and / or mouth feel, but not, as in wine, the opposite of sweet; often accompanies light, or even delicate coffees, such as Mexican, Ethiopian and Yemeni.
• Earthy: Aroma / flavor reminiscent of damp black earth, organic, mushroomy, cellar-like
• Neutral: Bland coffee, very low acidity, not derogatory, as implies no off-tastes; good for blending (often describes many ordinary Brazilian arabicas).
• Rancid / Rotten: The flavor of a spoiled oily product, as in rancid nuts or rancid olive oil; fairly disgusting; can cause involuntary gagging.

Studies have suggested that the consumption of coffee is beneficial to health in some ways. Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. So drink up!!

"Coffee" around the world: Gehve, Qahwa, Koohii, Kalawa, Kafe, Kape, Kawa, Gafae, Kahwa, Sourj, Kafei, Kaffee, Masbout, Buna, Kahvi, Cafe, Kaffee, Kafes, Kope, Koffie, Kave, Kopi.